Buenos Aires

This is La Casa Rosada, one of the many sights that I visited during my 4 days in Buenos Aires. It houses the presidential offices and is the building where the famed Juan and Eva Peròn (Evita) spoke from the balconies. One of the theories of why it is pink is that it is painted with bovine blood- a common practice in the late 19th Century! There was a period when they didn´t have the funds to repaint the whole building so it now remains two-toned as a symbol of the country´s volatile economy.





We went to a wonderful tango show at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest club in Buenos Aires. I don´t have pictures of them dancing because you coudn´t use flash and they are extremely blurry!! I´ve learned some tango songs... I´m looking around for some dancing classes!





Although I never thought I could do it, I did as the Argentines do (and for those who have asked, I have been asking around and the consensus seems to be that you can use "Argentines" or "Argentinians" ...) and stayed out until the sun came up. We went to a dance club called Opera Bay that is designed after the Sydney Opera House. A clock that we passed on the way to the club read 2:32 am! Surprisingly I probably could´ve kept dancing!

I nearly jumped off the sidewalk into the street when I passed this stuffed cow. (I´m not sure if I actually thought there would be a live cow on the busy steets of Buenos Aires...) How fitting to get to take a picture with an animal that I will be eating so frequently for the next year! Although I´m not a big meat eater, I must say that the beef here is fantastic and very cheap.

I enjoyed the few days in the big city, especially because my next destination was so drastically different! All the girls in my program arrived in Buenos Aires and we headed off to our orientation in the country. There were 11 of us- all girls and all with a lot of luggage. The van driver did not seem pleased when he picked us up at the hostel and had to play Tetris with our luggage in order to get us all on board!!

Safe and sound

I have arrived safe and sound. I was met at the airport by Fernando, the founder of the program that I am doing. He was very nice and welcoming- just as I had remembered the Argentine people being. He brought me to my charming little hostel in Palermo (neighborhood in Buenos Aires) where i took a nice nap to avoid jet lag. It is nice to know that i´ll be here for a while so that I don´t feel like I hve to see everything the first day!

I just had a conversation with 2 guys from my hostel -one from Chile and one from Argentina. The Argentine guy actually thought I was from Argentina because of my speaking- maybe I´m not as rusty as I thought! We just had an interesting conversation about their world views and thoughts on the US. Basically ( from what I understand ) is that we are greedy and that the fourth world war is going to be us invading South America to get their water supply. I guess this is a theory that is going around. It is sad that they feel this way but i can´t really blame them! The Chilean also said that he wouldn´t visit the US because contritbuting to our tourism would be saying that they agree with our policies and what we are doing... i love hearing people´s thougths.

It is beautiful here- it feels like autumn in Colorado. Three more days in Buenos Aires and then I head out to our 2 week orientation. I´m off to tour a Latin American modern art museum and maybe get some coffee and alfahores (delicious Argentine layered cookies- Lauren I´ll have one for you!)

Argentina 2004

Here are a few pictures from my first trip to Argentina. After spending a few weeks there I knew I had to come back!


I am heading down to Buenos Aires on July 20th and will soon be updating this with new pictures and stories of life in Argentina. I will be teaching through a program called Colonias de Inmersion al Idioma. If you would like to read more there is a link to their website on this blog. Stay tuned!